April 1, 2021
On Monday, April 5, several new groups will become eligible statewide for the COVID-19 vaccine. One of these is frontline workers.
A frontline worker is someone who has a job that puts them at higher risk for contracting COVID-19 because of:
- Regular close contact with others outside of their household (less than 6 feet); and
- Routine – more than 15 minutes per person(s) – close contact with others outside of their household; and
- They cannot perform their job duties from home or another setting that limits the close or routine contact with others outside of their household.
This includes many different jobs and industries. Refer to Page 2 of this infographic to see whether your job qualifies. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has a more exhaustive list of definitions.
People will need to determine for themselves whether they are a frontline worker. The state is not requiring verification that a person falls within a specific category, though you may be asked at a vaccination site what category you fall into.
To learn more, check out OHA’s How to Find a COVID-19 Vaccine pages in English or Spanish.
 
Brittany Dorris, a fifth-grade teacher in the Bethel School District in Eugene, shares her story:
I received both doses of the Moderna vaccine at a vaccination clinic held at Lane Community College. The opportunity was provided to me by my school district to help vaccinate our school staff before the return to in-person instruction. I scheduled my appointment easily online, and when the day arrived on Feb. 5, the clinic was very organized and efficient. Everyone was kind and clear, and it was so exciting to see folks, educators and seniors, from across the regions getting their doses. The first dose was a breeze and I felt no side effects. Dose two came with some fatigue and aches on the second day, but a day of rest and I was back at it! I am so grateful to all the medical staff and volunteers who pulled off this large-scale vaccination clinic with the utmost care and safety. Vaccination is important to me to help protect my family, my students and their families, and myself from furthering the spread of Covid-19. It is important to me to model for my students a basis in science and protecting our community.
See a collection of Vaccine Voices on OHA’s blog. You can share your stories at the survey link in English or Spanish or use the hashtags #MyVaccineReason or #MiVozMiVacuna to share on your own social media channels. As we learn more about when and where vaccinations are available, information will continue to be posted at covidvaccine.oregon.gov and vacunacovid.oregon.gov.
Today, OHA announced that 23 Oregon counties have now submitted attestation letters signaling their intention to immediately offer COVID-19 vaccinations to expanded eligibility groups. The newest counties added are: Baker, Clatsop and Gilliam.
Full list of counties: Baker, Benton, Coos, Clatsop, Crook, Deschutes, Douglas, Gilliam, Grant, Harney, Jefferson, Josephine, Klamath, Lake, Lane, Lincoln, Malheur, Marion, Morrow, Sherman, Umatilla, Union and Wheeler.
By attesting, these counties can now begin vaccinating all individuals listed in Phase 1B, Group 7, ahead of the previously designated statewide start date of April 5.
Since Feb. 3, OHA has been reporting a cumulative count of each variant of concern on its Tableau dashboard. These counts have been based on information reported directly to public health by laboratory partners.
On March 16, CDC reclassified the B.1.427 and B.1.429 variants as “variants of concern”. These variants have been circulating in Oregon since late 2020 and had not been previously reportable. OHA has reviewed historical data in the open-source sequencing data platform GISAID and has identified more than 190 B.1.427 and B.1.429 variants to date in Oregon.
In order to provide a comprehensive picture of variant circulation in Oregon, OHA will begin updating its variant of concern counts using GISAID data. This will allow OHA to rapidly report historical data whenever CDC definitions of variants of concern are updated. The OHA variant of concern dashboard will be updated with GISAID data on April 2, 2021, and will be updated every Wednesday moving forward.
Oregon will continue to ask all laboratory partners to promptly report all variants of concern (B.1.1.7, B.1.351, P.1, B.1.427 and B.1.429) and variants of interest (B.1.525, B.1.526, P.2) to public health in order to inform case investigation and contact tracing.
Vaccination data showing the status of COVID-19 vaccinations at the county level has been temporarily disabled on OHA’s vaccination dashboard. No other data are impacted, and statewide data on race, ethnicity and the age of persons vaccinated are still being updated on the main dashboard showing Oregon’s vaccination trends.
OHA is addressing an issue with its geocoding process, which miscategorized the location of certain vaccinated individuals. The problem has been fixed and solutions are being evaluated to update and correct county designation for impacted individuals.
OHA continually analyzes all its data and performs ongoing data quality checks. At this time, all other data elements are verified.
Vaccination data requests that include county of residence will be delayed at this time. OHA will provide an update on the estimated timeline for release of county-level data in the coming days.
The Oregon Health Authority’s COVID-19 Weekly Report, released yesterday, shows higher daily cases and lower hospitalizations and deaths than the previous week.
- OHA reported 2,456 new daily cases of COVID-19 during the week of Monday, March 22 through Sunday, March 28. That represents a 28% increase from the previous week.
- New COVID-19 related hospitalizations fell slightly to 137, down from 139 last week.
- There were 10 reported COVID-19 related deaths, which is the lowest weekly total since last June.
- There were 92,083 tests for COVID-19 for the week of March 21 through March 28. The percentage of positive tests rose to 3.7%.
- People 70 years of age and older have accounted for 40% of COVID-19 related hospitalizations and 77% of COVID-19 related deaths.
Yesterday’s COVID-19 Weekly Outbreak Report shows 24 active COVID-19 outbreaks in senior living communities and congregate living settings, with three or more confirmed cases and one or more COVID-19 related deaths.
There are two new COVID-19 related deaths in Oregon, raising the state’s death toll to 2,385, the Oregon Health Authority reported at 12:01 a.m. today.
Oregon Health Authority reported 521 new confirmed and presumptive cases of COVID-19 as of 12:01 a.m. today, bringing the state total to 165,524.
Today, OHA reported that 46,587 new doses of COVID-19 vaccinations were added to the state immunization registry. Of this total, 29,262 doses were administered on March 31 and 17,325 were administered on previous days but were entered into the vaccine registry on March 31. Cumulative daily totals can take several days to finalize.
Oregon has now administered a total of 941,850 first and second doses of Pfizer, 867,103 first and second doses of Moderna and 43,075 single doses of Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines.
To date, 1,170,585 doses of Pfizer, 1,098,900 doses of Moderna and 97,300 doses of Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines have been delivered to sites across Oregon.
These data are preliminary and subject to change.
OHA's dashboards provide regularly updated vaccination data, and Oregon’s dashboard has been updated today.
Cases and deaths
The new confirmed and presumptive COVID-19 cases reported today are in the following counties: Baker (7), Benton (8), Clackamas (39), Clatsop (7), Columbia (16), Coos (7), Crook (2), Curry (4), Deschutes (30), Douglas (17), Grant (7), Jackson (73), Jefferson (2), Josephine (30), Klamath (22), Lane (30), Lincoln (2), Linn (20), Malheur (2), Marion (40), Multnomah (71), Polk (12), Tillamook (13), Union (4), Washington (48) and Yamhill (8).
Oregon’s 2,384th COVID-19 death is a 78-year-old man in Klamath County who tested positive on March 15 and died on March 31 at Sky Lakes Medical Center. He had underlying conditions.
Oregon’s 2,385th COVID-19 death is a 48-year-old woman in Union County who tested positive on March 17 and died on March 30 at St. Luke’s Boise Medical Center. She had underlying conditions.
COVID-19 hospitalizations
The number of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 across Oregon is 155, which is 16 more than yesterday. There are 39 COVID-19 patients in intensive care unit (ICU) beds, which is three more than yesterday. The total number of patients in hospital beds may fluctuate between report times. The numbers do not reflect admissions per day, nor the length of hospital stay. Staffing limitations are not captured in this data and may further limit bed capacity. More information about hospital capacity can be found here.
Learn more about COVID-19 vaccinations
To learn more about the COVID-19 vaccine situation in Oregon, visit our webpage (English or Spanish), which has a breakdown of distribution and other information.
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